Czech Republic, Poland to increase number of soldiers in Afghanistan

According to Czech Defence Minister Martin Stropnicky, the Czech Republic is prepared to enhance its involvement in Afghanistan and increase its numbers by several dozen soldiers in addition to the current 250, while Poland agreed to send 100 additional troops. Afghanistan was on the agenda at the NATO Defence Ministers meeting in Brussels on 9 November.

The ministers agreed to increase the number of soldiers in the Resolute Support mission by about 3,000, raising the total number of NATO soldiers to 16,000. In accordance with the mission, they would help train the Afghan Army and Air Force. The additional units should be deployed by the start of 2018 after approval by the member states' authorities, which raises concerns about possible failure to meet the obligations. The vacancy of up to 20 % of positions in 2017 was, according to US commander in Afghanistan John W. Nicholson Jr., the obstacle to successfully completing the mission. However, 10 % of the remaining places will remain vacant even after this troop increase. NATO will also provide the Afghan Army with financial assistance of more than €2.5 billion by 2020 in response to US President Donald Trump's new strategy of deploying more units in Afghanistan to combat the territorial expansion of Taliban.